Originally Posted by
sblock
Alas, if it were only a matter of the time commitment, diligent work, and "paying dues"! Sadly, there is so much more that goes into being a successful virtuoso than that.
Great musicians, like Mozart, Paganini, Menuhin, Chopin, Kreisler, Liszt, and so on, who were widely considered to be true virtuosi in their time -- and yes, we can include Chris Thile here! -- displayed prodigious, "natural" talent from an early age, and proceeded to cultivate that talent with hard, sustained work.
So no, I cannot agree that if the rest of us "worked as hard as [Thile] to be a real professional, we might play at that level." I am quite sure that there are any number of very talented mandolinists out there who have devoted equivalent amounts of their time and energy towards playing better, but will never achieve what Thile has. Thile is not great simply because he puts in more time. There's a whole lot more to it than that.
In the classical world, there are a great many aspiring violinists who have devoted their entire lives to become the best possible musicians that they can be. But unfortunately, try as they might, few of them will ever manage to play like Oistrakh, Perlman, Menuhin, Heifetz, etc. Or Joshua Bell. Or Sarah Chang.
Ask any instructor at, say, Julliard or Eastman or Oberlin or Curtis or Berklee (or any great music conservatory) and they will tell you that there is much more to being a virtuoso than a willingness to work at it. Talent and natural abilities -- both physical and mental! -- are very real things.
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